Expenses published yesterday show the SNP spent £1.4 million on the political earthquake that resulted in the nationalists taking 56 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats last May.

The cost worked out at about £1 for every SNP voter in Scotland.

But the helicopter was not the most expensive item on the SNP’s list published by expenditure watchdog, the Electoral Commission.

Two payments of £38,000 went on a campaign Tv advert featuring voice-overs by Scots actor Martin Compston.

Policy guru Stephen Noon was paid nearly £10,000 for his work on the campaign.

The SNP spent a total of £1,475,000 on the general election campaign, over £1.2 million of it on advertising and election material.

Compared to the Green Party, which ended the election with one MP after spending £1.1 million, the SNP’s expenditure looks like tremendous value for money.

As well as big budget items the party engaged in smart placement advertising, paying a few hundred pounds for a space on a popular hotel booking site.

The political parties spent a total of almost £40 million on the 2015 general election, figures have revealed.

Biggest spenders were the Conservatives, with £15,587,956, ahead of Labour’s £12,087,340, the Liberal Democrats’ £3,529,106 and Ukip’s £2,851,465, said the Electoral Commission.

The total of nearly £40 million outstripped the £34 million spent on the 2010 campaign. But 2015 was still cheaper than the record-breaking 2005 campaign when £42 million was lavished on wooing voters.

The figures mean the Conservative campaign cost £1.38 for each of the 11.3 million votes they won, while Labour spent £1.29 for each vote, Liberal Democrats £1.46, the SNP £1.01, Greens 98p and Ukip just 73p.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat spending was cut on previous elections but Labour increased spending sharply on the £8 million spent by Gordon Brown in his unsuccessful battle to hold on to power in 2010.

Labour spent almost £600 on chicken suits for campaign stunts while a total of £223,573 to Miliband’s US adviser David Axelrod.